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Ford and screen fitters say the elements fail which fail one half of the screen. Nope, the heating elements are in parallel not series, so one failing wont fail a side of the screen. Instead your windscreen wiper mechanism is fouling the delicate fol strip that supplies power to the screen. Ford wont admit this design fault unless more people complain to ford, they should be recalled. Mine is a ford focus titanium 06 model.

Below is my youtube video showing the reason my drivers side of the screen has faile, it funny from what ive read its always everyones drivers heater that fails!

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in reply to a message received, it is not possible to move the foil power supply lead to any other position. It has very little play and the plastic cowling sits above it. This is a MAJOR design fault. It seems ford added these screens after designing the wipers. I imagine thousands of people have replaced windscreens thinking the elements have gone when in fact fords bad design has caused this problem. With winter approaching if yours has failed I urge you to approach ford to complain about this design fault, and also BBCs Watchdog. Has anyone else removed the cover and seen this before?

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Would it be possible to take the wire connector over the top of the wiper strut, to lift the foil above the moving part, and cable tie it out the way. I have read your comment about not being able to move it any where else, but in the vid it does look as if it could go over, rather than under. Or do the plastics preclude this? It's dark at the moment, but if not to much work involved to get to the strip then I shall have a look myself.

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Would it be possible to take the wire connector over the top of the wiper strut, to lift the foil above the moving part, and cable tie it out the way. I have read your comment about not being able to move it any where else, but in the vid it does look as if it could go over, rather than under. Or do the plastics preclude this? It's dark at the moment, but if not to much work involved to get to the strip then I shall have a look myself.

Fancy posting a couple of bullet points on how to expose the strip?:)

i would if possible glue a thin foam piece to the metal above the strip then use something to keep the strip out the way for extra protection glue a soft piece of foam very thin foam on the wiper arm where it may rub

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At 2.32 in your video I believe I can see the clip that the wire should be clipped into on your car, its slightly obscured by the wire that goes through the bonnet hinge, in horizontal alignment with the wiper post and wiper fixing bolt. It looks as if it has not been fitted right.

It is not a design fault.

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I just watched your video again and spotted you have the same problem on the passenger side. There is a clip that is not being used. I would suggest the screen connection should be clipped to this, to stop the wire and ribbon just flapping in the wind, so to speak.

ok so here is a few simple instructions on how to repair your faulty heated front windscreen.

1. Open bonnet

2. Remove rubber covers on window wipers. Expose nuts

3. Using a set of grips or spanner undo bolts

4. THE WINDOW WIPERS.

To remove the wipers, push down on the join and pull the wiper arm towards the engine bay and lift up. x2

5. You will see around about 8 clips holding on the plastic trim that the wiper supports come through. Remove these clips

6. Remove plastic trim, this just peels off.

7. Now you have exposed the window wiper bars and heating elements.

Take a look on the driver side and you will see a cable hanging loose and a black tab hanging from under your window.

8. Disconnect cable and cut open the opposite end to expose the cable inside. You will see small square of treated copper.

9 scrape off the silver to expose copper.

10. Get some 2.5mm stranded cable around 10 inches is enough. strip 10mm of insulation away and using a solder iron tin the end fully. Heat shrink can be added to this cable.

11. Tin with solder the exposed copper on the small square of copper.

12. If you can clamp these 2 cables together while you solder then do so as it can be tricky. If not get someone to help you.

13. Heat both parts together and add extra solder to join both parts. Leave to cool/set then slide black rubber over the joint and tape closed.

14. Using the same method as you have just carried out, peel back some of the black covering to expose the silver looking copper. scrape away carefully a section to expose the copper and tin with solder.

15. Strip around about 15mm off insulation from the other end of the cable and tin with solder.

16. Clamp these to sections together or get a friend to hold.

17. Apply heat from the solder iron and add extra solder to get a good connection. Leave to cool and set and then tape exposed joint.

18. Plugging the cable back in and test window to make sure it now works. This can be tested by boiling a kettle and letting it sit in your car.

19. Once you have confirmed the window heater works unplug and reroute the cable so it is kept as far away from the wiper bars as possible. Reconnect the plug.

20. It is now time to put the plastic trim back on.

TIP make sure the trim is fixed into the runner bar first before putting clips back on.

21. With the trim all secure and clips in place, rescuer the Wiper Blades. The same rule applies when putting back on as you did taking off. but push the wiper up the window.

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At 2.32 in your video I believe I can see the clip that the wire should be clipped into on your car, its slightly obscured by the wire that goes through the bonnet hinge, in horizontal alignment with the wiper post and wiper fixing bolt. It looks as if it has not been fitted right.

It is not a design fault.

If you use this clip then the cable seems to get crushed by the plastic trim and bonnet. Not enough to damage the cable but enough for it to discolour and stretch the insulation. This clip is meant for thinner cables that you see on the driver side. This would be used on left hand models I presume

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Back from work now, so I can go on a bit more like the grumpy middled aged man that I am.

First, thanks to the guy who made the video in the first place. Despite the "rear" windscreen bit I understood everything you meant. A very nice explanation.

Second, thanks to Dougie for the quick response. Well done mate for fixing yours. The reasons I can't do it myself are;

I'm over 50, and can't see anything close up

I've got fingers like jumbo sausages

I might be able to find a mate, or a mate's son who could have a go. I guess even if you fail it's no loss, as it doesn't work anyway (I should add here that I haven't actually checked the foil strip yet, as it's pitch black out there, and I can't afford a house with a drive, let alone a garage. But if it isn't I'll bare my ar*e in Binns window).

I've got a mate at work who's got a 55 plate Fiesta, and he told me his drivers side FSH had packed in. Is this the same problem?

Can you get banned from these forums for saying you hate Ford?

I've had this Focus since it was a year old with 7500 on the clock. I had to have a new clutch last year at 35000 miles. What's that all about?

Plus my daughter's got an 04 Ka she's had for 3 years. Don't get me started on that. Let's just say the raw materials and the build quality aren't the best.

Wow I feel really great now I've got that of my chest.

Think I'll go outside and put a big chip in the screen, and get a new one on the excess. Or maybe Ford could replace it free of charge as it's obviously a design fault.

Once I'mm 100% sure it's the foil strip, I'm gonna take back to the dealer for his "expert" diagnosis, or to Autoglass who put a replacement in 18 months ago to see what they say. I'll play dumb tho.

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I wouldn't trust their "expert" diagnosis as far as I could chuck them.

I had my car 6 months took it to a " good " ford dealer, They took it in in the morning, I phoned up at 3pm to see how it was getting on, The girl said I will go check etc. So she comes back and says MR Millar the dash has been taken out of the car and we are testing your window so I don't think you will get the car back today. 35mins later I get a call Mr Millar your car is ready to pick up !

2 weeks after that I get a call from the ford team. Mr Millar unfortunately we wont be repairing your car under warranty as you had the window replaced and its not a genuine ford part. So hands up to them they got me on that one ( it was replaced by the previous owner ) I asked the guy how they would check the window etc and he said all they do is check the window is a ford part. If it is then they replace the window most of the time they get auto glass in so make sure it has the ford logo on it !

fortunately I'm an electrician so I know how to fix these kinds of things. If you get someone who is handy with a solder iron then the fix is very easy. If you follow that step by step it really isnt hard, you dont need to do anything more

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It isn't a genuine Ford part as far as I'm aware (the replacement w/screen).

None of this surprises me about Ford. When I had the clutch replaced the car was out of warranty anyway but I thought I'd ask. The guy at the service desk said "clutches aren't covered by Ford warranty. If want a warranty like that you need to buy a Mercedes or a Saab or something like that!!!!!!"

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If you know a young electrician who is interested in cars im sure he could fix it for you folling the guide.

I have fixed a good few up by my way. I do it in their drive or out on the street.

Your clutch, I guess its a wear and tear part so wont be coverd under warenty ? unless it went really quick once you got the car? but the way I see it... a good quality built car should not need a new clutch before 3 years :P

Guess what? My drivers side quiclear is kaput also... (does this mean that LHD versions pack up on their drivers side also?) Thanks to the confidence given in the repair guide, i'll take a look at the ribbon this saturday and report back... I'll tell you what though... I'll bet you a spicy pot noodle that if i can manage to fix it, then the weather will suddenly, and miraculously turn mild!

Thanks to Dougies ST (for the heads up) And my mate, (for his soldering skills) Both sides of my heated front screen now work B)

I thought i'd drop a few piccies onto this thread for the sake of top up info...

Plug to heated screen removed, end stripped, and extention cable in situ

Plug going to the "copper" ribbon removed and being soldered onto an extension piece of cable (so the "ribbon" is long enough to re-route later)

One of the trickier bits of this otherwise pretty simple repair is the soldering on the repair cable to the ribbon...The bonnet getsd in the way when it's open, so we popped the bonnet down, protected it, and soldered the extension to the ribbon (tricky) The cable end was splayed as much as possible to help simulate the width of the ribbon....

Once soldered, heat shrinked, then loomed for good measure, the cable and ribbon is now long enough to re-route under the wiper motor mechanism out of harms way... So with luck, this repair SHOULD be permanent.... Having said that, the ribbon still had to be cable tied right up under the bulkhead to keep it away from that pesky chafing wiper mechanism...Fingers crossed for a long term repair....

So, am I right to believe that the fault develops NOT in the ribbon itself, but in the wire which connects to the ribbon? And that the fix is to leave the ribbon intact and simply cut out and replace (via soldering) the wire connecting to the ribbon with a longer one?

Seems strange to me that the fault develops in the wire when the chafing action appears to happen on the ribbon and not the wire (according to the video in the first post, anyway).

I haven't yet taken the wipers etc off to have a look at what the problem with mine is, but I'm assuming its the same issue the rest of you are having, as it's the same symptoms (driver's side windscreen heating failing, passenger's side fine).

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my car has just developed this fault and i have removed the covers etc to find the ribbon has ripped but unfortunately it is very close to where the ribbon joins the screen so its hard to get to. can the ribbon be removed from the windscreen? has anyone had any joy out of complaining to ford?

UPDATE: I thought I would chance my arm and call the company that installed my new windscreen in January this year. They are now going to replace the whole screen under warranty! HAPPY DAYS! Excellent customer service!